1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for individually isolating each of a plurality of parts. The device can be used with, e.g., an image recognizing apparatus that identifies the parts based on their position and configuration, to allow a conveying and placing apparatus to align the parts on an alignment section of a magazine or tape.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical examples of part isolating apparatuses which have hitherto been used include a part feeder and a vibration feeder which utilizes vibrations. Such conventional apparatuses are provided with portions designed to correspond to each of the plurality of parts handled thereby. For instance, a conventional part feeder is provided with means for orienting each part, whereas a conventional vibration feeder is provided with holes for fitting each part being vibration-fed. Thus, a conventional part isolating apparatus is rendered capable of feeding parts positioned in a desired attitude.
Such conventional part isolating apparatuses, however, involve the following problems. The parts handled by the apparatus occupy, for their own use, a relatively large portion of the apparatus. Accordingly, depending on the type of part to be handled, it can be difficult to isolate the portion that is to be exclusively occupied by the part. As a result, the reliability exhibited by the apparatus varies with the type of parts handled. For this reason, it has hitherto been necessary to prepare different types of part isolating apparatuses for different types of parts. What is more, there have been certain parts that cannot be aligned or fed by conventional part isolating apparatuses.